Christine de Beer - effortless floral craftsman
Spin a spiderweb around skeletons scaling up still sprawling severed nasturtium stems
- 29 October 2025
Stack a few glass containers to create a tower for your nasturtiums to tumble down from... and (of course!) your skeletons to scale up on.
Design Note: Secure the glass with a few drops of hot glue to make sure the stack remains stable.
Oh yes, an unstable glass stack for a floral mechanic is a horror story of its own. Do Not Ask.
Meet the three bony fellows that will attempt to scale up the glass: Tabitha "Legup" Tibia, Clavicle Shouldershrug, Mandible Chinchuckle.
Use a tiny bit of hot glue to position the skeletons to scale up the glass containers...
Make sure their heads are turned in different directions so that you have a skeleton stare from all angles.
Fill the container that will hold your plant material with water.
Book readers turn to page 137 to read more about how the choice of container will influence your design and why I chose glass for this design.
For more information about my book: The Effortless Floral Craftsman
Place the nasturtium vines in the waterfilled container...
And use the glued in skeletons as your mechanic to keep the vines in place.
Test your battery powered fairy lights to make sure it is working before adding it into the design...
Wrap the small fairy lights up and around the vine and the skeletons.
Secure the light switch somewhere where it is easy to turn it on and off...
And conceal the battery with a large leaf.
Glue in a few dried hydrangea flowers to scatter all around the vine and glass containers.
I am using the hot glue spider web first as a mechanic to reposition the nasturtium vine to look less straggly... and once in position I make room for them to grow...
Once the design details are in place, I am switching up my spider web technique (notice how I made the web finer?) to make sure the vine can still grow without being constraint.
Every Wednesday morning (Vancouver time), I send out a Design Note the moment the newest Design is ready with a few notes on what makes this week’s design remarkable. These are the kind of "tips" you won’t find anywhere else. This week, I show you how I make the strands thinner and I explain how to make sure the growing vines are not constraint. The sign-up is just below.
If you’re curious how I spin my hot glue spider web (first shared in 2011 and it has been quietly woven into many of my designs since) you’ll find the original tutorial linked below. It’s become a well-known technique over the years, and still holds its magic.
And as always I am finishing off my design with a few sparkling dew drop crystals.
Design note: this design is one of those rare designs that just became prettier over time. The nasturtium takes on a life of its own and grows and twirls.
Sustainability note: And once you are ready, simply gather all the glue strands together and melt them down in your glue pot to reuse. Zero waste!
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